Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better than THRILLER, but that's not saying much., April 12, 2005
Kinda like a strange variation of REPULSION if re-written by Charles Manson. THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA is about a troubled woman named Molly who had a horrible childhood thanks to her dad raping her nonstop. Now as a heavy drinkin', pill poppin' adult Molly has a few problems of her own. The visions of mutilated corpses and the commercials telling her to kill are pretty serious, but that's nothing compared to her habit of hacking off men's dongs with a razor!
You'd think with a storyline like that that things would escalate until finally the film explodes into an orgy of blood, nudity and gore. Well, that's at least what I was hoping for. Sadly things actually slow down as the movie goes on until finally at the end I was getting pretty depressed.
If you're looking a film about female madness then stick with REPULSION, but if you want some psychotic sexy violence that's gonna make your eyes pop out then watch A CHINESE TORTURE CHAMBER STORY 1 & 2.
Also for all you fans of the Don Knotts/Tim Conway classic THE PRIVATE EYES check out Stan Ross in a brief scene as the tattoo artist Jack Dracula. He's even on the back of the DVD case.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Very strange--but effective--film, March 13, 2005
The poster art for "The Witch Who Came from the Sea"--which is reproduced in gorgeous color, but frustratingly cropped form, on the cover of the DVD--has absolutely nothing to do with the movie itself. "Witch" is not a horror film, but rather a scathing indictment of child sexual abuse which occasionally veers into horror-like territory.
Millie Perkins plays Molly, a spacy barmaid who idolizes men on TV, dotes on her two young nephews, and often recalls her late, seafaring father with unnatural reverence. She also has ugly castration fantasies that she acts upon about fifteen minutes into the film(don't worry, I'm not giving away the movie's major revelation here). Perkins is really good in this role, and Lonny Chapman also gives a fine performance as her grizzled boyfriend.
What else works in this film? The dreary, battered Venice Beach and Santa Monica location shots. The creepy soundtrack. Molly's sad, uncomfortable, frightening flashbacks to childhood. What DOESN'T work is the dialogue. Robert Thom(Perkins' husband at the time) wrote in the Ernest Hemingway-Rod Serling style; everyone in the film speaks exactly the same way, and they all sound so nutty that you'll often be left scratching your head in frustration. I think that Thom was going for a folksy, man-and-woman-on-the-street feel(for 1976), but the language comes off as goofy and stilted. That said, watch the film anyway--it really is worth it. You'll never, ever forget "Witch". (Without giving anything away, the final scene is wonderful, almost perfect.)
Extras include commentary by Perkins, director Matt Cimber, and cinematographer Dean Cundey; interviews with the same; and trailers for some other movies. What's really interesting about the film itself is that there are two or three scenes which I never saw on the ancient VHS print I used to rent. Brace yourself before you see this; obviously the film is not suitable for children, but many adults will find it extraordinarily unpleasant as well.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An oddity, June 3, 2005
First of all, forget that DVD cover! Theres nothing as fanciful or fantastical as that blatantly innappropriate image in the movie we have here. "Witch" concers a troubled young woman called Molly who's life is going nowhere as she drifts through her job as a waitress in a beach-side bar. Although, unbeknown to her colleagues, the woman is secretly sliding into madness, as she fantasises and hallucinates over football players she watches on TV, and relives an abusive childhood she suffered at the hands of her father. Things start to turn nasty when Molly actually meets a hunky footballer, but after taking him home she is somehow driven to tie him up and castrate him.
The whole film plods along in a limp dreary fashion, which might work if Mollys behaviour was graphically depicted on screen, but all the violence is very low key and nearly all off-screen, so the viewer does not get much chance to be jolted into being interested in what is going to happen. The locations are all run-down coastal bars and apartments, with plenty of ugly decor throughout which firmly plants this film in the 1970's (when it was made). Millie Perkins does turn in a good performance as the central character, her best line being delivered as she undresses her intended castration victim and then, glancing at the small safety razor blade she has to hand, sighs and murmers dejectedly to herself: "This is gonna take forever..."
Aside from that memorable line, the film will probably not hold your interest for much of it's running time. It's marketed as a horror film, but it is more a study of a troubled woman's descent into madness, that ocasionally lapses into lurid territory. Not really much here to get you sitting up in your seat. And certainly no witches coming from the sea...I still wonder what that title is all about.
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